unique/candidate-sources.md

Candidate sources

Newly nominated sources awaiting review before promotion to sources.json. Each entry says where it came from and the case for adding it. Vet manually, then move to the main list.

2026-05-13

• Lex Friedman — lexfriedman.com — https://lexfriedman.com/ — surfaced as the developer of Gnome (the menu-bar GIF picker captured this run). Friedman is a long-time Macworld/Six Colors contributor with his own site indexing his personal projects and writing. Low-volume but high-signal — when he posts about a new utility he built, it's worth scanning. Possibly more useful as a developer-tracker than a feed.
• Kyle McDonald — kylemcdonald.net — https://kylemcdonald.net/ — surfaced via Web Curios linking to his Apocalypse Early Warning System (private-jet tracker). McDonald is a data artist with a long catalog of unusual web projects spanning data viz, machine learning, and net-art. Worth a single-pass scan to harvest current projects; cadence is irregular.
• Brilliant Maps — brilliantmaps.com — https://brilliantmaps.com/ — surfaced via Kottke's link to the crowdsourced US-regions map this run. Long-running map-curation site that's a steady source of unusual cartographic finds (linguistic maps, historic boundary maps, sub-regional curiosities). Likely WebFetch-friendly.
• Hand-drawn Games — handdrawngames.com — https://handdrawngames.com/ — surfaced via Kottke linking to their revived Desktop Tower Defense. Studio rebuilding Flash-era browser games for the modern web. Low-volume but each release is the kind of nostalgia find that earns a capture; worth a quarterly check.
• Sandwich Vision (Hovercraft) — already nominated 2026-05-06 — note that Six Colors continues to surface their work (Hovercraft post this run reconfirms Sandwich is a productive source). Promote next.
• Routinehub.co — already nominated 2026-05-05; the Add-to-Calendar Shortcut captured this run is hosted on iCloud rather than Routinehub, so the Routinehub-vs-iCloud-Shortcuts split remains open. Worth a one-pass vetting to see whether Routinehub catches Shortcuts the r/shortcuts thread misses.

2026-05-09

• Daniel Fox — danielfox.ie — https://www.danielfox.ie/ — surfaced as the author of the YouTube HLS Shortcut captured this run. Personal blog with deep-cut iOS Shortcuts research and reverse-engineering writeups (the YouTube post documented an undocumented YouTube player API). Low-volume but unusually substantive when posts land — worth quarterly check.
• Ambrook OffRange — https://ambrook.com/offrange/ — surfaced via Kottke link to the Pocket Forests / Miyawaki piece. Editorial arm of agricultural fintech Ambrook, covering food systems, land use, and rural innovation with longform writing. Adjacent-but-relevant for general-delight + environment captures.
• Galen Leather Blog — https://www.galenleather.com/blogs/news — Turkish leather-goods shop's blog surfaced via Kottke's Nibmeister piece. Strong on fountain-pen craft, leather repair, niche analog-tool culture; the kind of shop blog that publishes substantive long reads rather than thin product copy.
• Rory Pulvino — rory.codes — https://rory.codes/ — surfaced via Web Curios (Blind Data analysis of the Guardian Blind Date column). Independent data-storytelling projects with sharp writing and clean visualizations. Low-volume but the projects each warrant their own find.
• Punto Fisso (Stefano Quintarelli) — https://puntofisso.net/ — surfaced via Web Curios (Eurovision lyrics scrollytelling). Italian data-journalism project; English-language interactive pieces appear infrequently but are unusually substantive. Worth quarterly check.
• Since You Arrived — https://sinceyouarrived.world/ — surfaced via Web Curios (Last Night's Sunset gradient page). Personal art/code project with a few small browser experiments at /sky and other paths. Vet for whether the domain has more pages worth surfacing.

2026-05-06 (evening sweep)

• Outdoor Research — Infinite Guarantee — https://www.outdoorresearch.com/ — surfaced via r/BuyItForLife reader experience post detailing same-day Foray jacket replacement under the lifetime warranty. The policy itself is a noteworthy "buy-it-once" pick — but the canonical landing URL was elusive in this run (/pages/infinite-guarantee, /pages/our-infinite-guarantee, /pages/infinite-guarantee-policy all 404). Worth a dedicated investigation pass to find the right URL and then capture as a guarantees/return-policy find rather than as an ongoing source.
• Westsider Rag — https://www.westsiderag.com/ — Upper West Side neighborhood blog that ran the Andrew's Honey Shop bee-distribution story this run. Local NYC reporting that surfaces the kind of in-business neighborhood curiosity (working hives in a Columbus Ave shop window) that mass-market travel sources miss. Returned 403 to curl this run; needs a different fetch approach. Vet WebFetch first.
• 22RE Studio — https://22re.com/ — Los Angeles design firm behind Bar di Bello's interiors (captured this run). Could be an ongoing source for design-led restaurant openings and room-renovation features. Worth a one-pass scan to assess whether their journal/news output justifies regular checking.

2026-05-06

• Sandwich.vision — https://sandwich.vision/ — surfaced as the publisher of Hovercraft (the virtual-camera Mac app captured this run). Sandwich is the production company behind the kind of small, deliberate, design-rich Mac/iOS app that fits the brief (also publisher of Sandwich Studio); their software page is a curated index of their releases. Low-volume, high-signal — worth scanning quarterly rather than daily.
• Lowtechguys.com — https://lowtechguys.com/ — surfaced as the publisher of Cling (the file-finder captured this run). Indie Mac developer / blog crossing into utilities and small-batch software releases. The "/articles/" path appears to host their writing; vet whether the cadence justifies a daily check or whether it's better as an opportunistic monitor.
• Express Transit (the site) — https://expresstransit.com/ — surfaced as a Six Colors recommendation this run. Strictly speaking it's a directory not a feed, but new entries are added when new transit networks light up Apple Wallet — worth checking via "what's new" once a month for travel-tip captures.
• Glenn Fleishman — glennf.com — https://glennf.com/ — Glenn published Mister Plimsoll (captured this run) and is a long-running Apple-platform writer (TidBITS, Macworld, his own books on technical history). Independent site indexing his current projects and blog. Strong signal for both apple-tips and macos-apps; vet for cadence.

2026-05-05

• Routinehub.co — https://routinehub.co/ — surfaced as the canonical hosting URL for the SmartMover shortcut captured this run. Community-driven directory of iOS/macOS Shortcuts with upvotes, descriptions, and version history; a less-noisy alternative or complement to r/shortcuts. Has a ?sort=top&days=7 view that should be straightforward to scan; vet for noise vs. signal across the shortcuts category before promoting.
• Moss & Fog — https://mossandfog.com/ — surfaced via Messy Nessy's vol. 770 crediting them ("Found via Moss & Fog") as the discoverer of the Anton Elfilter mixed-media collages post. Visual-culture publication leaning art, design, and curiosity — strong overlap with general-delight and gifts. Likely WebFetch-friendly. Vet for cadence and signal-to-noise on a single sweep before adding.

2026-05-04

• Tokyo Paladin — https://tokyopaladin.substack.com/ — surfaced via Daring Fireball Linked List crediting their post on Noir, the Yamazaki "Japanese Oreo." Substack focused on Japanese consumer products and cultural curiosities, in the vein of "things you can only buy in Japan that quietly outclass their global competitors." Substack feed should be curl-friendly via the standard /feed pattern. Strong candidate for the gifts and general-delight buckets.
• PetaPixel — https://petapixel.com/ — surfaced via Kottke link to NASA's Artemis II photo dump. Long-running photography publication; coverage spans gear, photo essays, and historical archives — overlaps general-delight (photo finds) more than tools. WebFetch-friendly historically. Vet for noise-vs-signal across topics before adding.

2026-05-03

• Robin Good's "Best Curated Newsletters" — https://robingood.substack.com/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Annual list of curated newsletters; less a daily-find source than a yearly source-of-sources to scan once and harvest. Worth checking the most recent edition for newsletters in our brief that we don't yet track.

Full-sweep capture round (apple-tips, quotes, dad-jokes new topics)

• Simon Willison — simonwillison.net — https://simonwillison.net/ — surfaced via Kottke's link to the Talkie LLM post. Daily-cadence link blog focused on developer tools, LLMs, and small clever software. Strong overlap with the macos-apps and tools brief; technical but consistently surfaces underrated open-source projects. Probably WebFetch-friendly.
• This Is Colossal — https://www.thisiscolossal.com/ — surfaced as the originating credit on Kottke's Unruly Play post ("via thisiscolossal.com"). Long-running art and visual-culture publication; would expand the general-delight bucket toward artists / installations / oddities. WebFetch-friendly historically.
• Daily Dad Jokes podcast / newsletter — https://www.iheart.com/podcast/867-daily-dad-jokes-89110830/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Weekly roundup curated from r/dadjokes; might just duplicate our existing r/dadjokes feed but the editorial pruning could give a higher-signal alternative if the JSON is accessible.
• Dad Says Jokes (Beehiiv) — https://dadsaysjokes.beehiiv.com/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Newsletter dedicated to dad jokes; Beehiiv's RSS feed should be curl-friendly via the standard /feed pattern. Vet for actual originality vs. recycled Reddit content.
• The Mac Power Users podcast (Relay FM) — https://www.relay.fm/mpu — surfaced via WebSearch for apple-tips. Long-running Apple-platform podcast; show notes pages list the apps and tips discussed each week — those notes are the actual source-of-sources value, not the audio. Probably WebFetch-friendly.
• TheMacU — https://themacu.com/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Tutorial-heavy macOS site with weekly newsletter; seems tutorial-thicker than our taste demands but worth a single vetting visit. May overlap too heavily with OSXDaily and 9to5Mac.
• Selkie Design — https://selkie.design/ — surfaced as the Hour by Hour developer site. Single-developer / single-app site, not a feed source. Skip nomination — flagged here only to keep the trail.

Gift-focused round (Amazon-leaning)

Goal of this round: expand gifts coverage with sources that lean Amazon-purchasable, and probe whether Amazon's own surfaces (Idea Lists, Influencer Storefronts) are usable as feeds. Note up front: Amazon does not run a unified consumer discovery blog — the closest native equivalents are user-curated Idea Lists (amazon.com/ideas/...) and Influencer Storefronts (amazon.com/shop/{handle}), neither of which has a central "browse new" feed. Discovery there is per-curator. All US-locale; src/lib/affiliate.ts only tags amazon.com today.

Editorial curators (highest signal-to-noise, vetted gift voice):

• Wirecutter — Gifts — https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/gifts/ — surfaced via WebSearch. NYT-owned product testing publication; the gifts hub is a perennial source of considered, taste-driven recommendations, and most picks have an Amazon purchase path. Likely needs curl (NYT blocks WebFetch) or skip if paywalled — vet fetchability first.
• The Strategist — Gifts (New York Magazine) — https://nymag.com/strategist/tags/gifts/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Long-running gift-recommendations vertical with strong editorial voice; many picks Amazon-purchasable. Same publisher anti-bot risks as NYT may apply.
• Apartment Therapy — The Bazaar — https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-bazaar — surfaced via WebSearch. Home-and-living shopping vertical; lots of Amazon picks framed by design taste. Likely WebFetch-friendly.
• Girls' Night In — "The Cute List" (Alisha Ramos) — https://girlsnightin.substack.com/ — surfaced via WebSearch. Taste-driven curation of "delightful discoveries" (style and culture); gift-adjacent with regular Amazon links. Substack feed available, so the existing curl pattern used for Recomendo should work directly.
• Wirecutter — Deals — https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/deals/ — sister hub to Gifts; surfaces Amazon-discounted versions of already-vetted picks, useful as a "gift on sale" signal. Same fetch caveat as Wirecutter — Gifts.

Reddit communities (cheap to add — existing curl + JSON path supports them via top/.json?t=week&limit=25):

• r/AmazonFinds — https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFinds/ — community-tagged Amazon discoveries. Mixed quality (some TikTok-style slop), but the top-of-week filter should surface the genuinely upvoted finds. Vet for delightfulness vs. cheap-gadget noise before promoting.
• r/Gifts — https://www.reddit.com/r/Gifts/ — request-and-recommendation community; many resolved threads point to Amazon. Useful for "what to give X" patterns rather than discrete products. Vet noise level — requests outnumber recommendations.
• r/HelpMeFind — https://www.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/ — people hunting for specific items; resolutions often land at Amazon. Lower volume of pure gift content but high signal when a thread closes with an answer.
• r/INEEEEDIT — https://www.reddit.com/r/INEEEEDIT/ — community sharing surprising/delightful product finds, very gift-shaped. Strong overlap with the "delightful and distinctive" brief; many items are Amazon-buyable.

Amazon-native surfaces (experimental — fetchability uncertain, per-curator quality varies):

• Amazon Influencer Storefront — Alix Earle — https://www.amazon.com/shop/alixearle — surfaced via WebSearch (AmraAndElma roundup). Trial example of a storefront with unusual categories like "Gift Guides for a Partner's Parents" and "Amazon Luxury." Vet for taste fit — fashion/beauty leaning may be off-brief. Storefronts are SPA-heavy; both webfetch and curl may fail.
• Amazon Influencer Storefront — Julie Capozziello — https://www.amazon.com/shop/juliecapozziello — surfaced via WebSearch. 64+ curated Idea Lists across lifestyle, gifts, books, snacks. Trial example of breadth. Same fetch and taste caveats as above.
• Amazon Gift Finder hub — https://www.amazon.com/gift-finder — Amazon's own editorial gift surface. Expect heavy algorithmic + sponsored content; included as a baseline to evaluate whether Amazon-native editorial is worth tracking at all. Likely fails the brief on its own; useful as a control.
• Amazon Idea Lists search — https://www.amazon.com/gift-ideas-list/s?k=gift+ideas+list — there is no native "browse all Idea Lists" page, so a search-results URL is the closest thing to a discovery feed. Probably noisy; flagged for evaluation rather than confident inclusion.

Sources-of-sources (one-shot scan, not daily fetches — same pattern as Robin Good above):

• AmraAndElma — "25 Top Influencers with Amazon Storefronts" (2026) — https://www.amraandelma.com/top-influencers-with-amazon-storefronts/ — yearly roundup; scan once to harvest more storefronts that match the brief, then drop.
• The Influence Agency — "Top Amazon Storefront Creators" — https://theinfluenceagency.com/blog/amazon-storefront-top-creators-2025 — second curator-of-curators reference; harvest names, then drop.